Investigation of Photocatalytic Activity of Chitosan/Poly(vinyl alcohol)/TiO2/Boron Nanocomposites

In the current work, A series of chitosan/polyinsert ignore into journalissuearticles values(vinyl alcohol);/TiO 2 /boron nanocomposites insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(CS/P/Ti-B); were prepared and their activity in the photocatalytic removal of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(ibuprofen insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(IBP);); were evaluated for the first time. The nanocomposites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(SEM);, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(XPS);, Fourier transform infrared spectrum insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(FT-IR);, and thermogravimetric analysis insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(TG-DTG);. TGA thermograms showed the enhanced thermal stability of nanocomposites with increasing Ti-B content. In the photocatalytic experiments, the effects of Ti-B content, catalyst dosage and initial concentration were discussed and a suitable photodegradation process for enhanced removal was proposed. The photocatalytic removal of IBP increased with increasing Ti-B ratio and the kinetic rate constant of Ti-B increased from 4.516 × 10 −2 min -1 insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(for raw Ti-B); to 5.346 × 10 −2 min -1 insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(for CS/P/Ti-B/1);. This increment could be attributed to the decreased recombination rate of the photo-generated electron-hole pairs.